Valentine’s Day in LA

I'm back in LA for more meetings. Thursday I spent several hours with the creative team focusing on the script with an emphasis on characters and story arc. We had great participation and a terrific session to compare notes we each had assembled about the current version. Shannon Elizabeth, an Executive Producer on the film, is particularly helpful as she helps to hone the lead female character's role and continues to challenge some of the rest of the team's more testosterone-driven ideas ("do we really need the girls to make out here??")

I find myself in the odd position of being the marriage expert. Purely by default, I will add. It's interesting to hear the others in the room as their notion of marriage is largely derived from the movies or their friends. Having some experiential similarities with the main character also proves helpful. Sample exchange:

"What would the main character's motivation be here?"

"Well, hypothetically, if I were in this situation, I could see my motivation as…"

"Hypothetically, huh?"

Yesterday a young lady friend and I dropped the top on my rented Mustang and drove up the coast to Santa Barbara. We primarily went to attend a producers panel at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. This proved to be worth the trip. Producers from top films such as Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Invictus, Up In the Air and Up were represented. I learned a bit about filmmaking, the relationship between the producer and director and a few creative ways the producers dealt with challenges on and off the set.

After lunch in town and a visit to the local art museum, we were off to take in the roller derby match that night.